A few moments later, Rhone walked through the door. She had the portfolio that she had brought in last night. Lex looked up from the fire that he had started and immediately noticed that she was without her artist's tube.
She didn't know why she had decided to leave it in her car again. Maybe she wanted to know if last night was just a fluke when she didn't even realize that it was gone.
She walked to the large table and set down the portfolio without a word. She pulled out two chairs right next to one another and sat in one of them. Lex walked up beside her to see what she was doing. She started getting out paper, pencils, ink pens, and other art supplies. Lex slowly realized what she was doing.
"It is more comfortable to sit, Mr. Luthor," she looked up at him from her seated position and gestured to the vacant chair beside her.
It was with great reluctance that he sat down. She slid a pad of paper in front of him, kept one for herself, and placed all of the other supplies in between them.
She had been putting a little more thought into that new comic book idea that she had a few days ago. She started flowcharting the general plot that she wanted it to take. She didn't know how many issues it would be yet, so she just put down any detail she might want to use in the new comic book.
Lex watched her out of the corner of his eye. She had her right leg wedged between herself and the edge of the table and she was holding the notebook vertically to accommodate this position. He couldn't see what she was working on.
How hard could this be? He picked up a pencil and positioned himself so he could start drawing – any second now. When he got an idea… Did she just look at him? He thought he saw her look at him and then scribble something on her paper… She did it again… Well, back to his paper – his blank paper.
After a few moments Lex tossed the pencil on his paper and said, "What am I supposed to be drawing?" He felt a mild frustration.
Rhone continued looking at her paper and scribbling when a smile curled over her lips. "Wow," she said flatly.
"Wow what?" he asked looking at her. She still hadn't looked up yet.
"That was a whole," she looked at her watch, "minute and thirteen seconds." She finally turned her attention to him. "I'm not grading you, Mr. Luthor, you can draw or write what you want," she said, still faintly smiling.
He continued to look at her, "What are you working on?" Maybe he could just do what she was doing.
"Planning for a new comic book series that's been in my head for a few days," she answered as she started looking at her paper again.
He couldn't see exactly what she was doing. "May I see it?" he asked.
"No," she continued to look at her paper, "you may not. If you saw the whole plan right now, it wouldn't be very interesting when you read it later." She didn't want to elaborate on the real reason she didn't want to show it to him. She turned her head slightly to hide a guilty smile that crossed her lips.
I won't get to read it later, you'll be gone, he thought. He visibly straightened his posture when he got that odd feeling in his chest again. Maybe he should make an appointment with his physician.
Rhone misunderstood his reaction. She didn't want him to be pissed off over something so trivial. Just draw something. She had never met someone that had such a hard time doing something so seemingly simple.
She closed the notebook she had been working in and turned to him. "I've been having problems working out some kinks in this one short story I've been thinking about for a single comic. Maybe you could help me?" she half asked, half suggested. She really didn't have another short story idea in the works, but she could tell he was challenged by the task she had set before him and that it was beginning to frustrate him. If she made it sound less like an art project and more like a board meeting collaboration, perhaps it would be less daunting.
Thank God. She can just bounce ideas off of me and I can tell her what I think. I can do that, I'm used to it.
She picked up a pencil and slid Lex's paper over a few inches toward her. Ok, Rhone, just bull shit something. "It's a post apocalyptic thing," she started, "about an eco-terrorist that is now – obviously unemployed. But it was because of one of the things that he did that the apocalypse occurred. Now he has to deal with getting what he wanted and being currently screwed." Not bad, she thought to herself, I might actually use that…
Lex furrowed his eyebrows and smiled wryly at the same time. With a small laugh, he asked, "So, what's the problem?"
"Setting, both time and place – or if he or she should be nomadic. And what exactly they did to cause the apocalypse and still be alive," she fabricated immediate problems she might have encountered. While she was talking she started doing very preliminary sketches of what the main character might look like, both male and female.
He leaned over and watched her draw. It was amazing. He had seen her finished products; he knew she was talented, but watching it happen was something else. He stole a glance at the intense look on her face as she drew and smiled as he looked back down to the paper she was drawing on. "Maybe they should stay in one place, one that used to be heavily populated so they could have some resources and it would still be realistic," he offered.
Good boy, Rhone thought. She drew some large buildings behind the sketches of characters that she had drawn. They had little shading and appeared almost pristine, one even had a fountain.
Lex shook his head quickly and said, "Darker. Have you ever looked at Gotham City from the harbor district?"
Yes, she thought. She remembered tossing a – non-patriot into that harbor. "No, show me," she turned the page and slid the paper closer to him.
Lex hesitated, "I don't think I can put it down on paper." He didn't know how to draw. And next to hers, it would just be embarrassing.
"Well, I've never seen it," she said as she tilted her head and looked back to the blank paper.
Lex squinted at the white page. He went to put the pencil to it, but stopped and withdrew his hand. After a pause he rested the point of the pencil on the paper. "It sort of looks like there are different – layers of buildings," he said, trying to describe the memory as he started to draw.
Rhone watched him draw. She shook her head when she realized that she wasn't watching the paper. She leaned forward to fully see what he was drawing. It was – crude, but she guessed this guy hadn't been a vessel for the muse since he was in diapers.
"You can kind of get the idea…" he pulled away from the paper and turned toward her.
She looked at it and nodded silently. He needed to be reassured. She said, "I like that idea. As a matter of fact, I think that's the cover."
Lex smiled widely. He knew she was just being nice – but it felt so good to be encouraged. His mother had always been the one to do that sort of thing, but she was gone. She had been for – a long time.
Rhone interrupted his thoughts, "Seriously, Mr. Luthor, and you know how important covers are in comic books."
He continued grinning and nodded in agreement. She was right.
She turned the page again, to another blank page. "Try it again, but use less of an out line form. Use a softer line and don't be afraid to erase," she was showing him on the back of the previous page.
Lex exhaled loudly, "You tricked me."
"Tricked you?" she asked innocently.
"Into drawing that picture," he still had a grin on his face.
"I don't believe that you would do a damn thing you didn't want to," she looked at him thoughtfully. "To be honest, I'm surprised you didn't see past my bogus plot," she added.
She was right. He did want to draw something; he just didn't know how to start. Wait. "You just made that up – about the eco-terrorist, the whole thing?" he asked.
She shrugged an obvious "yes."
I wish I could do that, he thought. "That was pretty good, for being on the spot," he said, impressed.
"Thanks," she said after a pause. She didn't really know how to receive a compliment from him. It was so much more meaningful than when it came from, well, anyone else. "Try holding the pencil…" she started to move towards his hand, like she was going to show him. She remembered the first and only time she had touched him. It was in this room, and she thought he was going to jerk away so fast he would get whiplash.
He held perfectly still. He watched her lean and reach for his hand. Suddenly, she stopped and held her hand so he could see how she held her pencil.
"Like this," she said, not looking at him.
What the hell? He wondered again why touching anyone else wasn't a problem, but when it came to him it was like he had the plague or something. He silently wished that he had had the foresight to engrain every detail of their only previous contact into his memory. At least enjoy it…
What was he thinking? He was Lex Luthor. Women pined for him. At the clubs back in Metropolis, it wasn't uncommon for him to be surrounded by six or seven super model worthy women at a time. Sometimes they actually were gorgeous models or actresses.
…But they didn't swoon for him; they swooned for his wealth, his power. He never had had an actual conversation with any of them. And when he thought about it, he never had fun. Sure, the meaningless sex was physically enjoyable, but not fun like he was having now. They never gave him this feeling of – contentment – warmth.
And another thing was for sure. None of those women had ever, not even for a moment, in any way reminded him of this mother. Rhone had specifically reminded him of her twice. It was comforting and frightening at the same time.
You could always just touch her, he thought to himself, and see how she reacts…
"Mr. Luthor?" her words shook him from his thoughts. He perked up his eyebrows to acknowledge her. "You must be tired," she said with a small grin.
I'm always tired, he thought. He just didn't notice it when she was around. "I'm sorry, I…" he started to say.
"Do you always apologize so much?" she interrupted in a soft voice.
"Only to people I want to keep as friends," he responded, looking at her intently.
He was looking at her and she couldn't stop looking back. She was trying to read him with little success. Searching his eyes, his face… "So, what do you think of these?" she held up the sketches she had made for the main character.
He broke the gaze and looked toward the paper. "For the hero?" he asked.
"An eco-terrorist that essentially caused the apocalypse is hardly a hero, Mr. Luthor," Rhone smiled.
"Maybe they are trying to redeem themselves," Lex offered, "They did cause the downfall of humanity. That could make anyone feel a little guilty."
She knew he had it in him; he was too intelligent to not have an imagination. Granted, it didn't get used very often, but it was there. It just needed some exercise. She smiled widely. "Who did?" she held the notebook out to him so he could look at the dozen characters she had drawn.
He wondered what she was smiling about. He looked down at the paper and contemplated all the sketches. "This one," he said, leaning the paper toward her and pointing.
Rhone leaned forward to look at the one he had chosen. "At least he'll be easy to draw," Rhone noticed he had picked a very average looking comic book hero. Way too much like Warrior Angel, she thought. None of the characters she had drawn were bald. There was a reason for that. At least he didn't seem to notice.
That one was the best, he reminded Lex of Warrior Angel. Lex wondered what was with all of the characters having these heads of luxurious hair? She had asked him if he thought a woman could be a hero. Didn't she think a bald guy could be a hero? Should he be offended? No. She just didn't think about things like that.
She opened her inkwell and got out her inking pens. He watched her begin to add definition to the character he had chosen. Then she handed the ink pen to him with a warm smile. He took it from her and studied what she had already done. "Have you ever used a pen like that before?" she asked out of curiosity.
"Actually, I was at a ceremonial contract signing once. We used calligraphy pens like these," Lex said still looking at the paper.
"That's more experience than I had when I started," she said with a nod.
He felt comfortable enough to start inking without any – convincing. He couldn't believe that he felt that at ease. He realized how much he knew about outlining and shading since he had read so many comic books. But making your hand actually do it was harder than it seemed. However, it was much easier than actually drawing it.
She had turned her pad of paper to an empty page and was using a pencil to sketch something again. He looked over and saw that it was the same character that he was inking, but in a different position. Am I making a comic book? Lex wondered.
"Are you really going to make this?" Lex asked in a soft voice. Was that a hopeful question?
She stopped and looked at him, "No, Mr. Luthor, we are going to make this."
He smiled at her. He had one hell of a vocabulary, but there was no way to tell her what this meant to him. It was one step down from actually being a comic book hero.
"That is, if my creative collaborator and my inking staff feel up to it," she added as she looked back down to her paper and began drawing again.
He chuckled at that. Lex Luthor: starving comic book artist. He couldn't help but wonder what she was putting off now that she had spontaneously taken up this project with him. What was she working on before that she wouldn't let him see? He leaned over his paper and started working again.
He was aware that the comfortable and familiar silence had fallen between them again. Occasionally, she would break the silence and ask his opinion on the plot or minor details.
After a while, he began having ideas about their short story comic book. At first he was hesitant to say anything, but soon he was speaking freely. She helped him develop his ideas and encouraged him. They worked out the whole plot while they sat there; she would scribble it down in a different section of her notebook. Now all they had to do was finish drawing it. …Which with his limited experience would take a while – drawing, inking, coloring...
He noticed how fast she worked. The manager from his invoice office said she worked fast there too. Maybe she was some type of prodigy – it would explain why someone so young would be supervising people twice her age. But nothing in her file indicated that. It must just be experience.
"Hungry?" she asked him.
Lex looked up from his inking and at his watch, it was exactly 5pm. Odd, he didn't notice her look at her watch or the clock on the wall. "Yeah," he hadn't noticed until she said something. They put down their respective utensils and stood.
They began walking toward the dinning room. "Have you ever considered a career in comic books, Mr. Luthor?" she asked him with a small smile. Before he could answer, she continued, "If this whole multi-billion dollar corporation thing doesn't work out for you, I mean."
"I wouldn't do it without my partner," he said looking at her sideways. He was referring to their conversation earlier. He wondered why she wouldn't take that job and Keldora if she was so good at making comic books and loved it so much. And why, so she could work in some stuffy government office?
"If I ever change my mind, you'll be the first to know," she said despondently.
"Do you even want to work for Keldora?" he had to know. He heard the tone in her voice.
He was asking her what she wanted for herself. No one ever cared. At least, she didn't think that they did. They didn't ask if they did. They cared about what she commanded or wanted for the team or the good of the nation or world. She stared straight ahead as she walked. "It's every comic book maker's dream to work for Keldora," she answered vaguely.
"That isn't what I asked you," he pointed out.
She looked at him, "I told you what the dream was. I don't want to have to run my ideas by a committee or follow some procrustean comic book code. I want my own company – maybe my own store with…" Her voice trailed off.
"With what?" he asked. He wanted to hear about her dream.
"It would be," she started, "like a refurbished warehouse." She held her hands out in front of her, like she was holding a scale model of what she was talking about. He couldn't help but smile to himself. Then he nodded thoughtfully as he opened the door to the dining room.